continuing our yearly tradition of inappropriate Holiday Comic Book art, this year again from Eric Basaldua. As well as my favorite Christmas tune…Batman style! The Arkham Origins Suite composed by Christopher Drake!
Happy Holidays everyone!
A Musical Journey – The X-Men Film themes…
I think i have mentioned before that one of the things i love about Comic Book Movies is the often thematic music that comes from them. One of the best ways for a film to deliver those themes is an opening title sequence – something that few movies utilize these days.
However, there is one franchise that has – Marvel and Fox’s X-Men. Thanks to composers Michael Kamen (sorely missed), John Ottman, John Powell and Henry Jackman, we have a variety of themes to associate with my favorite Marvel Mutants (even if the movies arent doing them justice).
Michael Kamen started it off in 2000 (this was not on the standard soundtrack release for some off reason…)
Next up comes John Ottman, compsing for X2: X-Men United (and again this piece is not on the initial commercial release), while also serving as editor…
then comes my favorite (from the worst of the films), John Powell with X3…
now for the “reboot” and we get an awesome opening from Henry Jackman for X-Men:First Class…
The spectacular Days of Future Past brought the return of Ottman and his theme from X2 – sadly the overral soundtrack was a little lackluster. It was nice to hear the old theme again though…
Ottman returns again for Age of Apocalypse, and I prefer the end titles…he composed a magnificent piece to end this one…
With Dark Phoenix coming, i am curious to see who will be composing the score. John Powell’s is, by far, my favorite of the scores and has one of my to 10 favorite pieces of soundtrack music of all time (coming in a future post once I get back on track and on a regular posting schedule again.)
Today’s musing…
I saw Kong: Skull Island recently…and it was actually pretty good. And a thought occurred to me, and it seems to others as well from I have seen online… Tom Huddleston looks like he would make a good James Bond. He looks the part, works the accent. I think he could pull it off…
Status update…
No new art for the day, but we do have some ideas floatin around.
Made a decision though: I am going to start migrating the content from my other blog, The Jefferies Tube, to here so i can just manage the one.
So there’s quite a bit of Star Trek content that will be added over the next few weeks. Then I will be shutting The Jefferies Tube down. And just keep all posting in one place.
Stay Tuned…
In defense of Power Anthems…pt deux…
Hans Zimmer may be credited with starting the trend, but Steve Jablonsky has mastered the craft.
His collected scores for the Transformers franchise include many of the coolest power anthems I have ever heard…
From those heroic Horns to the epic percussion, and then the driving rhythms of the strings…spectacular…
He created the perfect musical palette for these ridiculous stories about Giant f$%@ing robots blowing stuff up…
As each film grew in scale, so did the music…
The stories seem to make less and less sense, but then who goes to see a movie like this for the story…
I honestly like the music more than the films themselves…especially the TF: The Last Knight. The power in the final cues…especially “Did You Forget Who I am” and “Calling All Autobots” which take the Prime and Autobot themes to another level…
I am not sure how he can top those, or if he’ll even try. But I hope that he does…I look forward to his music as much as i do the music for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
And you know what…it’s ok to like both kinds of film music. And it’s ok if you don’t.
“Sameness is the mother of disgust, Variety the Cure…”
In defense of Power Anthems…
Hello everyone, my name is Collin, and I am a fan of Power Anthems…
“Do you mean power ballads?” you may ask. Nope. POWER ANTHEMS, a most maligned genre of motion picture music popularized by Hans Zimmer and his Media Ventures/Remote Control Productions alumni.
Power Anthems can be recognized by their masculine chord progressions, frequent ostinatos, noble horns and epic crescendos. Many criticize them for their often synthetic sound, lack of diversity in instrumentation and catering to a testosterone-fueled audience.
That last remark, to me, is kind of the point. Power Anthems are meant to be just that: POWERFUL, Masculine, Heroic, Epic!
Critics also consider this style of music juvenile, simplistic, even brainless. But I believe these criticisms come from those that expect every movie to be accompanied by a John Williams masterpiece, or a score akin to the late-great Jerry Goldsmith, or even the self-plagiarizing James Horner. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of theirs as well. And Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, Michael Kaman, Michael Giacchino, Andrew Lockington, David Arnold, Bear McCreary…
But some movies simply don’t require their kind of compositions…
To be continued…
To all of my followers…Thank You!
I just wanted to take a moment tonight to say “Thank You!” to all of my followers. I do appreciate that all of you have taken a moment of your precious time to follow my blog. And i do welcome any comments you have, and the LIKES you have given to my posts, as infrequent as they may be sometimes.
You all are AWESOME!
And Thank You!
I hope you will enjoy my future posts. And i look forward to yours as well.
Happy Holidays to you all!
Batman v Superman:Dawn of Justice – Soundtrack…Not as bad as I initially thought
Krystal, thank you for constantly challenging me to look at things from a different perspective…
This post was going to be a lot different when i originally planned it out. I didnt like the soundtrack the 1st time i listened to it, or even the second. We saw the movie on opening night (and the critics and the fans are both right), and as we were watching the end credits, and listening to the music along with them, she turns to me and says “You dont like the music?” The piece that was playing at the time wasnt all that bad.
So then i went and listened to it again, and then i realized why i didnt like it initially…i was listening to it wrong. I went in wanting to hear a Superman soundtrack, which this is not. Once i listened to it as a Batman soundtrack, it works…some of it anyway. Some of it is still bad, just like the movie. But some of it is good, just like the movie. I am actually going to add a couple of tracks to my Super Hero playlist, especially track 1 “Beautiful Lie” as it is my favorite so far.
For anyone that decides to risk a listen to this…keep that in mind…This is a Batman soundtrack, rather like the movie is a Batman film, not a Superman film.
The Past is calling…
Many many moons ago I was a photographer. Yes…was. I discovered the joy of it in my senior year in highschool. My dad let me borrow his Canon AE-1 and myself and couple of lady friends would go out on photo-shoots (some of them were aspiring models). I even served as a Combat Photographer for the United States Marine Corps and was active during the dawn of the digital age of photography. Took to it rather naturally…
I haven’t practiced the art now in, well…it has to have been at least 15 years…probably more.
I can feel it calling again. I don’t know why. But i do know that digital wont do…we are going to do this old school. Recently acquired my 1st Ring Flash (never had an opportunity to use one in the past) and some b&w film…Checked out the Camera itself and seems to work just fine after installing a new battery. Very soon we are going to take a crack at some portraits…
I’m very excited to see if i still got it…
Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage – Concert Tour 2016
Had to share this experience…Last Saturday, 01/23/2016, I had the privilege of attending the Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage concert in Jacksonville, FL, and with an incredible woman (yes you, Krystal Kinzer). What a spectacular show!
She arranged VIP tickets so we got to attend the Czech Symphony’s warm up session. This was followed by a brief Q&A with Conductor Justin Freer, who also then took a few minutes to sign concert posters 🙂
Then, 2 hours and a yummy dinner at the Jacksonville Landing later, it was time for the show. 3rd row seats in the “pit”. The symphony’s performances were beautiful. We were treated to a number of selections from the various films and TV shows from the each run of Star Trek…with an added treat…for each incarnation of the TV series, we got to see and hear the symphony perform a piece synced to a scene from an episode of the show, which included one of my favorites from Voyager…
I will try to post some of the few photo’s she took while we were there later…but needless to say, it was a great night…hearing some of my favorite music performed live…and to be so close…couldnt stop my eyes from teerin up a few times, which i’m sure she noticed :P.
If its coming to your town, and you have the opportunity, AND you’re a Trekkie like me, then you sshould definitely attend…
Collinization 2.0 